Conjoined, complex and ‘forgotten’ worlds? Gender, politics and violence

Marysia Zalewski

Chapter 59 in Handbook on Gender in World Politics, 2026, pp 392-396 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter interrogates the paradox captured by Jack Halberstam's question: how can so much change, yet remain the same? Examining the conjoined terrains of gender, politics, and violence, it reflects on the institutionalization of gender analysis within international politics alongside the persistence of profound gendered inequalities. Feminist scholarship has reshaped the study of world politics by exposing how masculinized statecraft, heteronormative norms and racialized hierarchies structure war, security and political economy. Yet transformative change remains uneven and fragile. Engaging the radical futurism of Shulamith Firestone and the ambitions articulated by Kimberly Hutchings, the chapter questions whether feminist international relations has fulfilled its transformative promise. It argues that while gender has become normalized within policy and academia, it is frequently detached from feminism's critical force. Drawing on Cynthia Enloe's concept of ‘casual forgetting’, the chapter suggests that institutional comfort with ‘gender’ enables recurring erasures of feminist insight, particularly regarding sexual and gendered violence. Through contemporary cases of gendered violence and state repression, the chapter calls for an ‘active remembering’ of feminism's disruptive intellectual tools to resist patriarchal restoration.

Keywords: Gender; Feminist International Relations; Gendered Violence; Patriarchal Backlash; Casual Forgetting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803923765
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